This course fulfills requirements for the following specialization(s):

Natural Resources and the Environment

Description: This course: (1) traces the relationship between business and government throughout the policy process, from the policy formation stage (legislative and interest group politics) through the policy implementation stage (bureaucratic policymaking, and rule enforcement by agencies and courts); and (2) examines the legal and constitutional constraints that affect businesses across different political/legal regimes (e.g., the political/legal risk environment). The course takes a cross-disciplinary and (geographically) comparative approach to the study of these issues. It is cross-disciplinary in that it examines business-government relations from the economic, political, legal, and behavioral perspectives. It is comparative in that it looks beyond the U.S. political/regulatory/legal system to the larger universe of business-government relations within industrialized democracies. The course will also examine ethical issues associated with business' role in the policy process, such as (i) the role of political contributions and bribes in the policy formation process, and (ii) analysis of business' compliance (or noncompliance) decisions, and the forces that drive those decisions (e.g., law as deterrent, law as guide -- or impediment -- to social responsibility, other sources of social responsibility, etc.)